Hendersonville’s First Baptist Church has become Tennessee’s first church to receive $1 million in annual Cooperative Program gifts.
During FBC’s morning service on August 11, pastor Bruce Chesser handed a $1,025,000 check to Randy C. Davis, executive director-treasurer of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.
Davis discussed with the church some of the many ways CP gifts support missions and ministry.
He described a snapshot he received by text message last week of a family at a courthouse, including a mother and father and a young daughter whose adoption had just been finalized after eight years in the foster system.
“You were a part of that,” Davis stated.
Davis reports that after Hurricane Debby’s floods, they dispatched the Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief water rescue team to North Carolina.
“You were a part of that,” he informed his audience.
“In November, we will celebrate our 150th anniversary as the Tennessee Baptist Convention,” he said. “And during that time, we will have an International Mission Board sending service.” Additionally, we will send out dozens of new missionaries to join the 3,500 missionaries currently serving worldwide. And you are a part of it.
“We appreciate your check. He responded, “We praise the Lord for it.”
According to Davis, the annual Cooperative Program gift at FBC Hendersonville’s creation in the 1940s was $50. Since then, gifts have amounted to more than $16 million. Twenty-five percent of those gifts arrived during Chesser’s tenure at the church, he stated. On the same day, Chesser was celebrating his 15th anniversary at the church, and he told Davis that his goal for FBC Hendersonville is to give at least $1 million through CP each year for the rest of his tenure as pastor.
According to church profile statistics, the church donated $820,417 through CP last year, or 6.25 percent of its undesignated receipts.